Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: agriculture

agriculture

Crops not Watered, Fruit Rotting: Kandahar’s agriculture hit by war, drought and closed customs gates

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon •

Farmers across Afghanistan have been hit hard by drought and fighting in recent years. In this report, we look at how this has affected agriculture in one province, Kandahar, famous for its fruit production. Much of the fruit crop is – or should be – exported, yet the frequent and unpredictable closure of crossings into […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more
A child makes bricks in a mould at a brick kiln in Kandahar. For the families in our study from Sar-e Pul, working in the brick kilns in Mazar-e Sharif was a last resort, but by 2016, 70 per cent of households were migrating there seasonally, with men, women and children working. Households could easily fall into debt-bondage. Photo: Javed Tanveer/AFP, November 2021

Living With Radical Uncertainty in Rural Afghanistan: The work of survival

Adam Pain •

Yet again, Afghanistan is experiencing a moment of rupture, the latest in a long series of upheavals that have marked the lives of most Afghans over the age of 55. For those living in rural areas, unpredictability is created not only by regime change or violent conflict, but also drought, flooding and other natural disasters. […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Global Warming and Afghanistan: Drought, hunger and thirst expected to worsen

Mhd Assem Mayar •

While the nations of the world come together at the COP26 to seek solutions to climate change, Afghanistan is already suffering from global warming. One of the worst droughts in recent years has caused rainfed wheat crops to fail, led to plummeting livestock prices and shortages in drinking water. 19 million people – nearly half […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more
Casual labour in Badakhshan. Cash work, rather than income from agriculture, is key for many families in rural areas, but work is scarce. (Adam Pain 2011)

Why has Rural Poverty in Afghanistan Got Worse? New AAN paper on post-2001 agricultural policy

Adam Pain •

A new AAN paper seeks to understand why agricultural policy since 2001 has failed to increase production, lift rural Afghans out of poverty or secure their food supply. It finds the answers in the stories agricultural development planners tell themselves about how to ‘modernise’ agriculture, even as they ignore evidence from the field. AAN guest […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more
Boys threshing wheat in Ghor province (Adam Pain 2008)

Growing Out Of Poverty? Questioning agricultural policy in Afghanistan

Adam Pain •

A new AAN paper seeks to understand why agricultural policy since 2001 has failed to increase production, lift rural Afghans out of poverty or secure their food supply. It finds the answers in the stories agricultural development planners tell themselves about how to ‘modernise’ agriculture, even as they ignore evidence from the field. AAN guest […]

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“Green Is Happiness, Green Is Peace”: Gardening Afghanistan, from Babur to Bost hospital

Lalage Snow •

A garden for a king who loved the flower covered Kabul foothills so much he wanted to be buried there, a garden for checkpoint soldiers (where once a queen allegedly had tea under an apricot tree), one for hospital patients to heal in and one for the children of a poor farmer. In the midst […]

Context and Culture Read more

Orchards Go to Ruin in Afghanistan’s Khost Province

AAN •

IWPR, 3 June 2014 A story of war and neglect: Khost’s government-run almond gardens and fruit orchards are drying up. “I am the only gardener for the orchard,” the report quotes one Hakim Khan, 50. “If I walked all day, I couldn’t get from one side to the other. We have no equipment to work with, […]

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